Recently browsing the Internet, I found that some netizens attributed the copyright to Confucius when arguing that "a gentleman loves money, and he gets it in a proper way." Some people even confirmed that this sentence came from "The Analects of Confucius·" "Zi Zhang" chapter. However, did this sentence really come from Confucius? The author re-checked the entire Analects of Confucius for this matter, and did not find the statement that "a gentleman loves money and gets it in a proper way." Instead, he found a passage with a similar meaning. The original text is "Confucius said: 'Wealth and nobility are human beings. It’s what you want; if you don’t get it in the right way, you won’t get it.’” (Confucius said: Getting rich and becoming an official are things that everyone hopes for. A gentleman will not accept it if he does not obtain it through proper methods and channels. .) (See "The Analects of Confucius·Li Ren" above.) There is no doubt that the positive outlook on life represented by this passage of Confucius, as well as his thought of regarding unjust wealth and wealth as floating clouds, have a great influence on future generations of scholars, so , "A gentleman loves money and acquires it in a proper way", which was born out of the language mentioned in the above-mentioned "The Analects of Confucius" as the basic idea, appeared in works such as "Zengguang Xianwen" and became a well-known aphorism. In fact, a considerable number of idioms and allusions active in spoken or written Chinese today come from Confucian classics or the works of various schools of thought. Some of them were slightly modified by later generations according to the language and writing standards of the time during their circulation and use. For example, in "Mencius: Doing Your Heart", "If you are poor, you will be good for yourself; if you are great, you will be good for the world", which has been recited by modern people as "Da Ze" Benefit the world at the same time." Fortunately, such modifications often do not hinder the understanding of its original intention. It is worth noting that it is a kind of "corruption". For example, "every time the situation gets worse" in "Zhuangzi" is revised to the modern "every situation gets worse", which fundamentally distorts the original meaning. If today's writing encounters such problems, check It is necessary to check the source of the original text.